CNN begins to reap what they sow as their ratings nose-dive to embarrassing levels

CNN's ratings continue to nose-dive amid a number of controversies. (Photo by David McNew/Newsmakers/Getty Images)

Chris Enloe

Jul 8, 2017 10:14 am

CNN is having a tough summer.

After a number of journalistic blunders in June, CNN started off July mired in controversy after President Donald Trump tweeted an anti-CNN video created by a Reddit user. While the initial outrage was directed at Trump for allegedly “inciting violence” against the media, the outrage did a complete turn-a-round when CNN allegedly threatened to expose the identity of the Reddit user who created the video.

The controversies come at a time when Trump’s rhetoric against the mainstream media is at an all-time high. CNN, which Trump referred to as “garbage journalism” last weekend, is the most common target of Trump’s anti-media outrage.

And now, it appears CNN’s ratings are really beginning to reflect the controversies.

While Fox News and MSNBC continue to dominate cable news ratings, CNN last week dropped to 13th in the overall cable ratings competition, according to TVNewser. The ratings were average primetime ratings captured between June 26 and July 2.

Fox News dominated with an average of more than 1.8 million viewers, while MSNBC trailed with 1.34 million viewers. CNN, on the other hand, only averaged a mere 711,000 viewers.

The ratings didn’t include the fallout over CNN’s apparent threat to dox the Reddit user. Doxing is what happens when someone exposes the personal identity of an internet user for malicious purposes.

However, a number of incidents last month likely contributed to the ratings fall.

Three CNN journalists resigned last month after publishing a story that proved to be false. A CNN investigative journalist connected a Trump transition team member to a Russian investment bank in a story based on one anonymous source. The story was eventually proven false and removed from CNN’s website and social media.

Then CNN was hit with a number of undercover videos from Project Veritas that showed many CNN employees dismissing the network’s coverage of the Trump-Russia collusion story.

And on Thursday, a top CNN editor was criticized after he tweeted and promoted a video that purportedly showed Poland’s first lady snub President Donald Trump during a meeting in Warsaw. However, a wider view of the video showed this to be not true.